


in spite of ourselves

by anotherthief



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 09:00:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13314867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherthief/pseuds/anotherthief
Summary: This is a really really bad idea, she thinks.She kisses him back.





	in spite of ourselves

They’re sitting on the couch in Schneider’s apartment, the air feeling more charged than Penelope anticipated when the night began.

Schneider brushes his thumb along her jaw, eyes searching hers before he leans over and kisses her, soft and slow. _This is a really really bad idea,_ she thinks.

She kisses him back.

 

-

 

Penelope takes Schneider as her plus one to a wedding she doesn’t really want to go to but even more than that doesn’t want to go alone. So she asks Schneider and they go together but not like _together_ together, just together.

It’s not as terrible as it could have been. The groom is one of her and Victor’s old friends (but more Victor’s than hers) so that’s awkward, but the food is good and there’s an open bar. She has three glasses of wine and doesn’t feel guilty, especially with her built in DD in tow. There’s a dance floor and while Penelope’s not 18 anymore, she definitely still has moves. Schneider’s salsa lessons with Lydia have made him competent enough to do better than just the white boy shuffle. He can keep up, at least. They dance, they laugh, and she can almost forget why she didn’t want to come to this in the first place.

It’s late when they get back to the apartment building. She’d have gone straight to her own apartment, but she forgot her clutch with her keys at Schneider’s earlier after spending fifteen minutes waiting for him to stop primping.

Her clutch is on the coffee table, but instead of grabbing it and heading upstairs, she sits down on the couch. Her heels are already in hand, but she should have taken them off three songs _at least_ before she did. Schneider plops down beside her. Between his still mostly clean shaven face and the unknotted tie hanging loose around his neck, he looks somehow cuter than when the night began - weirdly sexy Schneider but also grown up somehow, in his slight dishevelment.

Then he opens his mouth.

“You know, sometimes I wish I was still drinking so I could blame being sore tomorrow on a hangover and not that I’m out of shape.”

Penelope laughs. “Well, there is that. But if you were still drinking, I would definitely not have taken you tonight.”

“That’s true,” Schneider says and tips his head in agreement. “And I would have been sad to miss it. Minus tomorrow’s sore muscles, we had a good time.”

Penelope gives him a small smile. “Yeah, we did. Thanks for going with me.” He smiles back in that sweet, slightly earnest way of his. Then she’s really not sure how to explain what happens next. She means to stands up, grab her clutch, head out, but she’s just looking at his face and feeling warm and happy, and she leans over and places a quick kiss on his mouth without thinking about it.

When she pulls back she can feel heat rising in her cheeks. Schneider’s smile is frozen on his face, his surprise evident.

She shakes her head. “I should - I should go home.”

Schneider catches her wrist loosely in his hand before she can flee from the scene. “Wait.” The word on his lips is neither command nor request, almost a question.

She doesn’t have an answer, but she doesn’t leave. He lets go of her wrist and softly touches her chin, turning her face to look back at him. He still looks a little surprised and unsure but then he leans over and they’re kissing.

It’s not terrible. Penelope hasn’t really spent any time thinking about what kissing Schneider would be like, but if she had, she would definitely not have thought it would feel like this, feel this good. He’s slow and decided in a way she wouldn’t have guessed. That’s frankly turning her on more than she’s super comfortable with, but she keeps trying to push those thoughts in the back of her mind.

His fingers from one hand tangle loosely in her hair. She reaches up and bunches a little of his shirt in her fingers, pulling him closer, and then she’s in his lap and it’s really clear where this is going to go if she doesn’t stop this now. She lets go of his shirt and pulls back, letting out a small groan in the process. “This is a bad idea,” she says giving voice to the thoughts running through her head.

Schneider licks his lips and sighs. “Yeah, I know.” He untangles his fingers from her hair and runs his hands down to her sides, settling there.

“I should go home,” she repeats from earlier.

“Yes,” he concedes and gives her a halfhearted smile.

When she makes no move to stand up, he gently swipes his thumbs across her ribs, just under her bra line.

She’s still looking at him and shaking her head and fully intending to get up when she says _again_ , “I should go home.”

His eyes flick down to her lips then back to her eyes. “Do you want to go home?”

She looks up at the ceiling because god, this is going to be disastrous, but then she - _dammit_ \- she can’t help it, she’s looking back at him and shaking her head from side to side, the corners of her mouth twitching upward. “No.”

His thumbs brush a little closer to her breasts. “I don’t want you to go home either,” he says quietly, his voice low, eyes steady on hers.

“Whatcha gonna do about it?” she asks, eyebrow kinked.

 

-

 

Penelope decides not to dwell on how easily Schneider has her out of her clothes and in his bed. Instead she focuses on the feeling of his mouth on the inside of her thigh and hopes she doesn’t get a burn from his five o’clock shadow. He trails kisses inward and then his tongue is on her clit doing things that have her grabbing the sheets with her hands. He slips one finger inside her, curling inward as her walls contract around it. He finds a rhythm and she feels her orgasm building. It’s been a, well, _a while_ and she’s screaming and seeing stars a lot more quickly than she anticipated.

He kisses his way back up her body while she’s coming down. She can taste herself on his lips when he reaches her mouth. Penelope likes that when he kisses her it’s still a little lazy, like he’s in no hurry, even though she can feel his erection against her thigh. She reaches for him, cupping him lightly and she can feel him jerk, thrusting in her hand. She grins against his mouth, breaking the kiss. “We need a condom.”

He grins back then rolls over and retrieves one from his nightstand and rolls it on. When he’s facing her again, he tucks a loose curl behind her ear. The expression on his face is suddenly very serious when he asks, “Are you sure about this?”

She closes the small distance between them, her chest pressing against his and kisses his mouth once, quick. “Yes.”

They roll so he’s above her and she helps guide him in. Even after earlier, she still has to take a second to adjust to his dick inside her. He dips his head to her neck, sucking behind her ear in a way he’s already figured out she likes. Her hips jerk and his respond and then they’re moving. She drags her fingernails across his back. They don’t really find a precise rhythm but something’s working because she can feel another orgasm building and he’s speeding up. He’s going to peak before she does at this rate, so she snakes a hand between them and finds her clit, speeding the process along, so when he shudders and cries out her name, she’s crashing right behind him.

 

-

 

Afterward, she really could fall asleep with his arms holding her to him, but she has zero desire to explain to her mother or her kids why she was out all night.

“I need to get upstairs before my mother realizes I didn’t come straight home from the wedding… and I’m going to ignore how much that makes me sound like I’m still fifteen.” She groans and buries her head in his chest.

Schneider chuckles a little and presses a kiss into her hair. “Yeaaaah, not gonna lie, as much as I’d like you to stay, I’m not really looking forward to Lydia finding out about this either.”

He lets go of her and Penelope starts looking for her clothes quickly, a little more self conscious now than when they were coming off. She’s zipping up her dress when she hears him ask from behind her, “Any regrets?”

She looks back to where he’s half sitting up in the bed now. His hair is sticking out in odd angles, making him look a little younger than his years. “No,” she says simply, then shrugs, “not tonight.”

Penelope kisses him before she leaves.

 

-

 

She’s going to take a shower as soon as she gets home, but she places her shoes and clutch on the elevator floor and pulls her hair up into an elastic, just in case Lydia decided to wait up or wakes up. Her lipstick and most of her makeup are long gone, but she can explain that a lot easier than whatever her hair must look like by now.

It’s mercifully silent and dark when she slips into the apartment, save for one small lamp left on so she doesn’t trip over the shoes she told Alex to put away no less than four times that afternoon. For now, she ignores them; the shower is calling her name.

Once she’s in her pajamas and in her bed with the covers pulled up, then and only then, does she let herself ask _what the hell was that?_

She doesn’t have an answer, but as she's falling asleep, she can almost still feel Schneider’s arms around her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to S for the beta.
> 
> Title from "In Spite of Ourselves" by John Prine.


End file.
